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When it comes to large video game franchises, it’s normal for developers to look for ways to keep them from stagnating. We’ve seen series like Final Fantasy that change drastically with every entry and work perfectly. On the other hand, we see series like Assassin’s Creed evolving with pretty big changes, and sadly, it’s for the worst. A series that started with a very original idea lost all sense with its last installments that sought to copy the trends of those years to stay new. Now that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is out, we wonder, “Is this the game that redeems the franchise?”
From the Top to the Bottom
Before seeing if Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the game that finally redeems the franchise, we have to explore what happened with the series and the path it took in recent years.
Assassin’s Creed arguably took a pretty big turn in 2017 with Assassin’s Creed Origins, the game that made the RPG mechanics more evident. Although many believe this installment was an RPG, it’s better to see it as an action-adventure game with many elements of the aforementioned genre. Although, at the beginning, people liked this new direction, things changed drastically with the next two installments.
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With Odyssey and Valhalla, the series lost much of its essence. The assassinations, the fight between the Templars and the Hidden Ones, were no longer so important. No. The important thing was to obtain armor of different rarities that gave us that dose of dopamine when we found a rare object. It’s one of the things that keep series like Diablo afloat. Similarly, other sagas added these elements, like God of War, but if it worked in that one, why did it fail horribly in Assassin’s Creed?
The reality is something we have seen not only in Assassin’s Creed but also in other Ubisoft franchises such as The Division and Ghost Recon, is that this era of the company can be described with one word: clutter. While it is understood that developers need to give players things to keep them in their games for hours, there is a fine line between giving something well-crafted with quality and a tapestry full of icons that become a chore and take all the fun out of it. Because of this, the company realized it wasn’t working, and that’s where Mirage came into the picture.
The Return of the Assassins
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was released in 2020, and its final DLC in 2022. Many reviews talked about the game having a good story. Yet many decided not to play it or continue it because of how overwhelming it was to explore the location where the game was set. That’s where Ubisoft had a brilliant idea: “What if we go back to our beginnings?” As simple as it sounds, Assassin’s Creed Mirage would be the first stone that would serve as the foundation of a new era of the franchise, and yes, we consider that this game finally redeems the series.
Of the most important elements of the franchise, we have always had the social stealth, the combination of fantasy action with some historical facts, and the eternal struggle between the control of humanity and the protection of free will. Mirage is the game that takes all of these concepts and brings them back to give rise to a new generation of games that appeal to both veterans and newcomers to the saga.
This new installment returns to its humble origins, where every player felt like an assassin. Goodbye to the days of using weapons or shields with different rarity and effects that were hard to remember. Now, we just have the classic and simple system of hiding in the crowd and waiting for the right moment to finish our target. It feels like returning to 2007 and seeing all your childhood friends wearing hoodies and nodding their heads, knowing they were part of the same group. Although it’s hard to please the entire audience, and many will say that it’s an extremely short game, it’s preferable to have something small of quality than a huge map full of meaningless tasks.
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A New Beginning
Although this is the first small step in the right direction, Ubisoft has a lot of things to change. It’s hard to know if it’s difficult for them to let go of some elements of the RPG genre to go back to what the first installments were. It’s understandable, given that almost all types of gamers welcome this genre. But, even so, we believe that the originality of Assassin’s Creed as a franchise is what gives it its success, something that the recent Mirage game has proven. Now that many have finished Basim’s adventures, it’s intriguing to see where this new franchise era takes us. But wherever it goes, we’re all ready with our controllers and hoodies for a new adventure.
